Romy Hoffman started her musical career in a rather enviable position. In 1995, at the age of 15, she secured the guitarist role with punk-pop outfit Noise Addict, fronted by a precocious young Ben Lee.

"I just did the last tour with them, which was great because I got to go to America," says Hoffman, who's known to the Sydney and American underground hip-hop community as Macromantics. "I never actually recorded with them, except for a B-side on a seven-inch.

"Being onstage at a young age helped me in the long run [but on] that trip I really consolidated my love of hip-hop; '93 to '95 was kind of the second wave of hip-hop, there was a lot coming out. Being there, I really saw how rife the culture was and fell in love with it. It was insane. People live, breathe and sleep hip-hop.

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"I really look at it as part of destiny. I don't think I'd be doing my hip-hop if I wasn't in Noise Addict, which is weird."

Lee went on to considerable pop success and to date movie stars, while Hoffman followed a musical path more closely aligned with the do-it-yourself punk ethos. Not that Lee has lost contact with his old bandmate.

"He came to see my last show in Sydney and he was pleasantly surprised," Hoffman says.

The two artists' careers aren't as far apart as you might expect, with both forging musical links in the US. On a return trip, this time on holiday, Hoffman found San Francisco a particularly inspiring environment.

"I wanted to return to America," she says.

"I love the culture. It's been embedded in me since I was a kid. I wanted to live the beat life - do road trips. So I bought a car, did a road trip and ended up in San Francisco.

"Again, through fate, I met the musician I'm currently working with. It wasn't premeditated. I didn't go over there thinking of making an album."

Despite the insular nature of the American hip-hop market, Hoffman has made some inroads. She has toured with abstract hip-hop artist Sage Francis and set up with a crew of like-minded producers and MCs.

"I've had nothing but respect and support," she says. "Everyone over there is interested in what's happening here, too. When I do go over there, I take over some Aussie hip-hop and people are surprised. They find it hard to understand. My accent isn't as hardcore, but they have problems trying to decipher everything that's said. They think the beats are really good, but they can't understand all of it."

The result of the San Francisco connection is the debut Macromantics EP, Hyperbolic Logic. It's a challenging listen, with Hoffman spitting tight, at times confronting, rhymes over dark, uneasy and engaging beats.

"Sometimes it's like homework, listening to it," she says. "In the early days, when I played it to friends and they said a word, I'd rewind it and make them listen. Now I'm trying to slow it down. I want people to hear every word."

The listening effort unearths a poetic and abstract wordsmith sharing personal experiences and insights. Words should be easier to catch in the next recording.

"The album is going to be different," Hoffman says. "It's still going to have the quirky references, the political, humorous and self side - it's just going to slow down a bit."

She might even cheer up.

"My family kind of told me to lighten it up," she says. "You should have heard the tracks I didn't put on the EP - they're really dark. That's what was going on in my mind and the world at the time, so blame the world, not me."